Food Allergy Counseling

Friday, August 19, 2011

Why I Rarely Eat Dessert Out

This recent blog comment about Quality Meats and dessert miscommunication (leading to a hospital visit) reminded me of my own food allergy rule: don’t eat desserts out. Why? Several reasons. First, in over my 30 years of dining out they almost always get it wrong. An unwanted nutty cookie or biscotti, a sprinkle of nuts around the plate for decoration, a marzipan layer under the frosting that no one knew about – the list of scary visible and invisible food allergy dessert errors are endless.

One of the problems lies with how a kitchen works. Smaller kitchens don’t always make their desserts in house, meaning a third party makes them and the all important labels are often discarded once the desserts are received. So, your server may not know what’s in your dessert and have little way of finding out and/or they make an honest (but ill informed) assumption that could be dangerous for a food allergic diner. For example, a server may assume that a "plain chocolate flourless cake" is just plain when in fact it’s "flourless" because it’s made with a nut flour. Even a conversation with a manager may not help because if the kitchen didn’t make the dessert and the labels are long gone, they, too, will be at a loss.

Another common issue is communication with the pastry chef. In more expensive restaurants, they have pastry chefs and a pastry (i.e. cold) station which is separate from the hot food and the appetizer sections. Often even when you’ve had the food allergy conversation with the manager or chef, the pastry chef may not get the message. In this scenario, a nut-free table that has had a great nut-free meal can be presented with a sorbet with an almond tuille lovingly placed between scoops. It’s not meant maliciously; it's just the pastry station didn’t get the message: no nuts.

So, often my safe dessert, if I want to/have to order one, is fresh berries, as it should be straight forward. And even with that I remind the sever: no cream (dairy intolerant) and no cookie (usually nutty), no sprinkle of anything, just dry – only berries and even that order comes to the table wrong too often.

Think I’m over-thinking this? Think again. Several chef colleagues have confirmed that I should stay away from desserts at their establishments: sorbets are often scooped with contaminated spoons, or chocolate sources are rarely from nut-free facilities.

There are many wonderful, safe exceptions, of course: restaurants that have dedicated allergen-friendly menus, or are white tablecloth and make everything from scratch (and keep their labels), or restaurants that make you or your family something special like Blue Smoke did here for my birthday.

But overall, the best solution for right now in 2011, and the one I recommend when dining out, especially at a new, untested restaurant is: skip dessert. It eliminates that particular risk and maximizes food allergy safety and enjoyment.

3 comments:

I always skip dessert at restaurants! If I want to eat dessert after a meal out, then I make it earlier in the day at home, go out for dinner with friends, and then invite them to my place afterwards for coffee and dessert. That way, I know it's nut-free! To be honest, it's not only safer, but also healthier and cheaper to skip dessert anyways. :)

I agree that desserts at restaurants are very difficult for the food-allergic -- especially with multiple food allergies. There is often nothing on the menu that comes close to suitable. My solution is to make the treats at home.

We only have dessert at one restaurant, Macaroni Grill. We place our request with the manager to pull a brand new sorbet container & to use a clean scooper. The reason we trust them is because they have a food allergen menu, the staff is trained about food allergies and most importantly, on our first visit, the manager offered to open a new container & to use a clean scooper when we informed him of our son's dairy, peanut & tree nut allergies. He clearly understood procedures to avoid cross-contamination.

Sloane Miller, MFA, MSW, LMSW

I have had food allergies my entire life (I'm anaphylactic to all tree nuts and salmon, and OAS to many fruits and vegetables) and live a full life; I am committed to helping other people with food allergies do the same.

My work has appeared in national and international media, including: ABCNews; Allergic Living; CNN; Huffington Post; New York Magazine; NY1; The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.

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The content on this blog is based on my personal experiences and intended solely for entertainment purposes only. I am not a medical professional and the content on this blog is not to be considered medical advice.